Tim Belden bought an entire city block months before the economy tanked in 2008. It didn’t sap his spirits.

Instead, Belden transformed a portion of the old A.H. Wilson Motor Car Co. building into an art gallery and living space. “I would have never done this in a community that is over-the-top,” Belden said.

“Right now, we’re still in the upward slope; property values are relatively low. It’s an 80-percent go with what’s happening in the economy and with what’s happening with all the investment in downtown. It’s an optimistic situation.”

Developers say low property values, a demand for upscale living space and limited competition from others are among the reasons they’ve taken the risk investing in downtown. But Belden and others admit they share an affinity for the city’s history and architectural charm that sometimes overshadows their financial considerations.

“When I (developed) the Northmark Building in 1998, I started buying up where the Carpe Diem coffee shop is and the old News Depot,” says Steve Coon, owner of Coon Restoration and developer of Hotel Onesto. “Everybody was running out of town while I was running in. I was trying to buy up as much property as I could. I believed in it back then and I still do.”

EMOTION

Downtown redevelopment and strategic planning expert Christopher B. Leinberger of The Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., think tank, has outlined a dozen steps for downtown revitalization. The first is to determine if the community will embrace a long-term redevelopment plan.

That “requires the mining of the most important asset a downtown revitalization has: Memory and the emotion it unleashes,” Leinberger wrote in his research paper, “Turning Around Downtown: Twelve Steps to Revitalization.”

“Emotion is why we create great civic structures, such as city halls, performance halls, arenas, and museums,” he wrote. “Emotion is the reason great historic buildings are renovated, even though the cost of renovation is usually greater than tearing down and building a new building.”

Mike Gill of the Canton Development Partnership says once-leary investors are beginning to take interest again in downtown Canton because they’ve witnessed its rebirth during the last decade. He credits the likes of Coon, Belden, developer Mike King and others for leading the charge.

They’ve been willing, Gill said, to invest in mixed-use development within the confines of an urban setting, while others rushed to the undeveloped green spaces near the suburbs. Gill says that as office space has filled above the first floor, these developers have seen a return on their investment.

“They aren’t afraid to make commitments,” he said.

Cindy Webster, chief executive officer of Canton-based REM Commercial, said developers must be willing to take risks like her late husband. Chuck Webster, who died in 2008, was behind both phases of the Cornerstone building on Cherry Avenue and Fourth Street SE and the Millennium Centre on Market Avenue N, among others.

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“He could walk into a building that most people would say needed to be torn down and say, ‘Look at this, we could do this,’ ” she said. “He had that vision with everything. ... He knew this was a great community to raise your family, but he knew someone had to put some interest in it so it could come back.”

REPLICATING SUCCESS

Coon believes major real-estate investment will occur in the urban core in the next 10 years. Developers will utilize state and federal historic tax credits to overcome the higher costs associated with renovation and in-fill development, he said. Urban development has its advantages: Infrastructure, like roads and sewer systems, is in place and there’s a growing demand from a “new creative class” of young people, he said.

Coon has been trying for years to rehabilitate the historic Hotel Onesto. Within two years, Coon plans to open 45 market-rate apartments, including 13 for long-term stays that he’ll market to the oil and gas industry.

Coon opened the Historic Mercantile Lofts in Hamilton, near Cincinnati, last year. He took three, 140-year-old buildings and turned them into 29 residential apartments and five commercial spaces. The lofts are viewed as the start of a revival in Hamilton. Coon hopes to replicate that success with the Onesto, which opened in 1930.

RISKS

Developer Mike King says not all developers believe in downtown. “Others say it’s too big of a gamble,” King says.

King rehabbed a stretch of Fourth Street NW for artists’ studios and the building that houses Buzzbin in the Canton Arts District. Almost all of King’s focus has been in the city since he formed King Properties in 1989, but during the last six years, nearly three quarters of his investment has been downtown.

His latest project is to renovate the old Superior Building, a 15-unit beige brick apartment at Shorb Avenue and Fifth Street NW. King bought the property for $15,000 last month and plans to invest between $150,000 and $200,000 to transform it into upscale apartments. He plans to install new appliances, granite countertops and refinished hardwood floors.

“At some point I might be (second guessing myself),” he says. “I’ve done projects where there are cost overruns and I’ve wondered if I should have taken it on.”

What scares many, Coon adds, is the behind-the-scenes grunt work that comes with rehabilitating old historic buildings. In his case, it took four tries to rid the 12-story Onesto of asbestos.

“Sometimes they die seven deaths before they come to life,” he said.

King sees early signs of progress at the Superior Building as workers gut interior walls on the first floor. He says he’s confident about what’s to come. His market — creating upscale living spaces downtown — is in such great demand that the few developers investing in the city center have no real competition.

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“There is no concern about competition because the market is just not going to be filled any time soon,” he says.

OPTIMISM

Tim Belden bought into the concept after bringing his family downtown for a First Friday. He opened the Joseph Saxton Gallery of Photography in 2008. He then doubled down on his investment by renovating a portion of the second floor into an immaculate loft apartment, a part-time home for his family.

He recalls as a child driving past the A.H. Wilson Motor Car Co. with his father, the late Marsh Belden Sr. “Some interesting things happened in that building,” they would say to each other. The 27,000-square-foot Cadillac garage could house nearly a third of all automobiles in the Canton area at the time, says Belden.

It was Marsh Belden Sr. and his siblings who sold the Jackson Township land that became Belden Village area. The family has always been passionate about downtown, though.

“Belden Village has no history,” Tim Belden said, “and history is to me the motivating, validating, creative force in everything we do. My small understanding of history indicates that’s something we all need for identity. It’s irreplaceable. History is the authentic thing I base my optimism on.”